Internationally, Out-of-School Time (OST) provision is widely seen as providing professionally-supervised activities through which young people, living in high-poverty contexts, can improve their after-school safety, as well as academic and personal development outcomes. However, even when practical barriers to access are removed, participation is…

This study analyses student and parental perspectives on the decision to drop out from a rural junior high school in northeast China. Data were collected in 2017 via participant observation, focus groups with students who were considered at "high risk of dropping out", and semi-structured interviews with parents. The official Chinese…